The end result of the presidential and congressional elections on Nov. 5 may have enormous implications for Okay-12 coverage and funding on the federal degree — and for firms working within the schooling market.
As presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on reverse ends of the political spectrum on many of the vital college points which have emerged on the marketing campaign path.
About This Analyst
Reg Leichty is a co-founder of Foresight Regulation + Coverage, an schooling legislation agency in Washington D.C., the place he gives strategic recommendation, authorized counsel, and lobbying help to a broad vary of purchasers, together with schooling businesses and establishments, nonprofit organizations, and firms. Earlier in his profession, he served as telecommunications, expertise, and privateness counsel for former United States Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Invoice Nelson of Florida, and as a senior legislative aide to former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.
And each chambers in Congress are up for grabs. Within the U.S. Home, the GOP controls 220 seats to Democrats’ 212 seats (with three vacancies), whereas within the Senate, Democrats have a slim majority.
Various large ticket federal objects — from funding for key Okay-12 applications comparable to Title I and Title II to the way forward for the U.S. Division of Schooling — might be decided by who’s elected in November.
“Each election issues quite a bit for the schooling system,” mentioned Reg Leichty, who advises Okay-12 teams on federal finances and coverage as a founding companion at Foresight Regulation + Coverage. “This one is especially consequential on the presidential degree, given a number of the very divisive rhetoric in regards to the public schooling system.”
The specter of cuts to federal funding for education schemes — multibillion-dollar applications that faculty districts rely closely on for important companies — looms based mostly on the result of the election.
Many schooling firms depend on college methods having the ability to faucet into these funding streams in an effort to pay for services in curriculum, evaluation, PD, ed tech, social-emotional studying, and plenty of different areas.
The results from the election additionally lengthen past budgetary points to the chance that the federal authorities may turn out to be extra concerned in divisive political-culture debates which have roiled many college districts.
Regardless of the prevailing divisions, Leichty mentioned he’s considerably optimistic that lawmakers will put apart political variations and work collectively on education-related points, not less than in some areas.
EdWeek Market Transient spoke with Leichty about what schooling firms ought to count on from a Harris or Trump administration and shifting majorities in Congress, the prospect of bipartisanship on schooling matters, and the way this November’s election will form different areas of presidency vital to the schooling business.
This story is one in a sequence that may have a look at the influence of the November elections on the schooling sector.
How do Harris and Trump differ on spending on large federal applications which might be vital to varsities and schooling firms?
It’s protected to say {that a} Trump administration would possible considerably disinvest in public schooling — and we’ve a way of what a Trump schooling finances appears like. For instance, the not too long ago handed Home Republican finances for the division of ed, the place we noticed a large reduce to Title I, full elimination of ESEA Title II, and flat funding for Title IV.
Alternatively, a Harris administration is prone to proceed to be strongly dedicated to offering assist for Title I for low-income communities, and in a number of the vital digital studying applications like Title IV that guarantee all college students have entry to the connectivity and linked units and different helps they should be taught.
Would you count on a Trump administration to enact main modifications to the U.S. Division of Schooling?
Former President Trump himself has form of plainly mentioned that his focus in schooling will probably be on dismantling the division of ed. We all know he has expressed a need to essentially alter the federal function in Okay-12 schooling. I might count on, as they did throughout the Trump administration 4 years in the past, a heavy emphasis on selling entry to personal schooling, a concentrate on charters and other forms of alternative mechanisms. We’ve seen what their priorities are by the final administration and extra not too long ago out on the marketing campaign path.
And the way do you count on a Harris administration would method the division of schooling?
We’d possible see Vice President Harris champion lots of the identical sorts of insurance policies that the Biden administration has centered on the final 4 years. We’d see a continued dedication by a Harris workforce to inexpensive faculty entry and completion.
We noticed on the Democratic Conference a spotlight and need to emphasise guaranteeing that college students have the employability abilities they have to be profitable. That features doubtlessly a concentrate on strengthening workforce applications, together with the federal apprenticeship applications that concentrate on abilities acquisition. And I do assume, as we’ve heard on the marketing campaign path, there could be a normal dedication to public schooling, and the children which might be served by the general public college system.
Do you assume Trump would use his bully pulpit as president to stoke Okay-12 tradition wars over race and gender which have performed out in states and districts?
I do assume that President Trump’s rhetoric has gone all in on putting schooling on the middle of the tradition wars. If he have been elected, it’s possible that he’ll proceed to concentrate on the themes that divide quite than convey individuals collectively as communities to enhance public schooling. [In 2020, then-President Trump signed an executive order that sought to ban the use of “divisive concepts” in federal contracting. Various of that term were used in many states in efforts to restrict lessons on race and gender.]
There’s additionally the query of how do members on either side of the aisle that need to transfer past a extra divisive debate about public schooling … come collectively to strengthen and higher serve the children in our communities that want probably the most assist?
It’s most likely going to stay an especially divided Congress, post-election. How possible is it that bipartisan dealmaking may happen on college points?
There are members on either side of the aisle who’re deeply dedicated to public schooling. They worth the general public faculties of their communities. Many, if not most of them, are graduates of public faculties, and so they see the worth of it.
Regardless of a number of powerful, decisive conversations on the contrary what we’ve seen is that individuals who assist public schooling on either side of the aisle have come collectively over the past eight years. There’ve been some bumps within the highway, however we’ve seen sturdy continued assist for guaranteeing that our public faculties stay type of anchor components of our communities.
Be part of Us for EdWeek Market Transient’s Fall In-Individual Summit
Schooling firm executives and their groups don’t need to miss EdWeek Market Transient’s Fall Summit, being held in-person in Denver Nov. 13-15. The occasion delivers unmatched market intel by panel discussions, unique information, and networking alternatives.
If Republicans win management of each chambers, what do you assume will occur with Okay-12 funding?
A Republican-controlled Congress is prone to champion flat, or much less spending in public schooling. I feel the proof of that’s discovered within the U.S. Home Labor, Well being and Human Companies, Schooling and Associated businesses fiscal 12 months 2025 invoice that the committee permitted a couple of weeks in the past, which cuts about $14 billion from Title I. That will be unprecedented.
Might these deep cuts to Title I truly occur?
It’s vital to do not forget that except Republicans obtain a super-majority within the Senate, that’s except they’ve 60 votes, it should proceed to be tough for these sorts of excessive cuts to be adopted. And I feel there are additionally many Republicans within the Senate that disagree with the path that the Home Republicans have taken on schooling spending.
All that’s to say, whereas schooling spending would unlikely be on a trajectory to extend in an all Republican Congress subsequent 12 months, it’s most likely most definitely to be flat funded, as we’ve seen lately simply due to the problem of shifting deep cuts by a system that may undoubtedly nonetheless have a considerable variety of Senate Democrats and in addition Senate Republicans who aren’t pleasant to the sorts of deep cuts proposed by the Home Appropriations Committee this 12 months.
What do you count on to be a prime precedence for the subsequent Home and Senate schooling committees?
The committees, actually in the event that they’re Republican or Democrat managed, will proceed to make progress on the substantive coverage problems with this Congress, which have been about modernizing the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act, exploring updates to the Nationwide Apprenticeship Act, and seeking to discover a path towards increasing Pell Grant entry for shorter time period, prime quality applications.
That’s to say members on either side of the aisle are going to be searching for bipartisan victories in what’s prone to be a really intently divided Congress. What we’ve discovered this 12 months and final 12 months is that there’s a number of curiosity amongst Republicans and Democrats, and among the many Senate and Home, to attempt to replace the federal workforce applications. They’ve made a number of progress … in direction of that objective.
On what different areas do you see prospects for compromise, and motion?
Considering from an ed-tech perspective, there’s some actually thrilling bipartisan provisions centered on constructing out far more strong information infrastructure designed to advertise better transparency for college students and employers within the workforce system. There’s some thrilling issues occurring, even in a tough type of political atmosphere.
Are there different areas of Okay-12 that would turn out to be main points for the subsequent Congress?
Proper after the election there’ll possible even be another points which will come up because of their prominence within the marketing campaign season. So there might be early conversations about proficiency challenges that youngsters have skilled publish pandemic, and the steps which might be being taken to get all college students again on monitor.
There might be, within the Senate, an enormous concentrate on literacy because of rating member Cassidy’s [U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.] curiosity and management in that house. I simply actually count on workforce to proceed to be a central focus of whichever get together is in energy.
Federal stimulus cash is expiring. To what diploma do you count on the subsequent Congress to look at the extent to which these have been good investments?
We’ve already seen the Home Schooling and Workforce Committee maintain these sorts of oversight hearings, which is a central a part of their function as a committee. That’s their job. It’s very attainable that, for instance, if there’s a Republican majority within the Senate that we’d see some hearings about ESSER within the well being committee [U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions] as nicely.
However I feel we’ve had that dialog largely already because of the Republican majority within the Home. So sure, there might be some future hearings about ESSER, however I don’t count on it to be the dominant narrative of the subsequent schooling committee’s work throughout the subsequent Congress.
A Republican-controlled Congress is prone to champion flat, or much less spending in public schooling.
Exterior of the White Home and Congress, what different methods may the federal election have an effect on ed tech or Okay-12?
There are additionally questions of who the subsequent president will probably be which might be linked to issues like judicial appointments. For instance, in the previous couple of weeks the Fifth Circuit Court docket of Appeals, which is closely populated by appointees of President Trump, has dominated that the income system for the Common Service Fund, together with E-Fee, is unconstitutional.
And we now have an actual query about the way forward for one of many —if not the most important — ed-tech program within the federal authorities, which is E-Fee. So this isn’t simply in regards to the bully pulpit, and it’s not simply in regards to the composition of the Congress and the way forward for laws. It’s additionally in regards to the appointees of the president and the work they’re doing, and the appointment of judges that may have a dramatically completely different view in regards to the constitutional relationship of a few of these applications.
On that word, the president appoints the chair of the Federal Communications Fee, which simply confirmed a fifth member final 12 months after a protracted partisan impasse. How may this election have an effect on the FCC?
If Trump wins, it should convert to a Republican majority and so they might need completely different views on issues like E-Fee, Wi-Fi on buses, or E-Fee assist for cellular hotspots. There are coverage points {that a} Trump FCC may train that is likely to be completely different and even dramatically completely different when it comes to how the E-Fee is used and what it’s used for and the way it’s funded.
